Missing Picasso Painting Spotted in Home of Imelda Marcos, Former First Lady of the Philippines

© AP Photo / Bullit MarquezFILE - In this Oct. 16, 2018, file photo, former Philippines first lady and widow of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, Congresswoman Imelda Marcos arrives at the Commission on Elections to lend her support for her daughter Governor Imee Marcos in filing her Certificate of Candidacy or COC for a Senate seat in the May 2019 midterm elections in Manila, Philippines. A Philippine court found former first lady Imelda Marcos guilty of graft and ordered her arrest Friday, Nov. 9, 2018, in a rare conviction among many corruption cases that she's likely to appeal to avoid jail and losing her seat in Congress.
FILE - In this Oct. 16, 2018, file photo, former Philippines first lady and widow of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, Congresswoman Imelda Marcos arrives at the Commission on Elections to lend her support for her daughter Governor Imee Marcos in filing her Certificate of Candidacy or COC for a Senate seat in the May 2019 midterm elections in Manila, Philippines. A Philippine court found former first lady Imelda Marcos guilty of graft and ordered her arrest Friday, Nov. 9, 2018, in a rare conviction among many corruption cases that she's likely to appeal to avoid jail and losing her seat in Congress. - Sputnik International, 1920, 14.05.2022
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On May 9, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. won a landslide victory in the Philippines' presidential elections. But despite more than 30 million Filipinos voting for the son of the former dictator who controlled the Philippines for two decades, stealing $10 billion from his people, speculation surrounding the family’s ill-gotten wealth is now resurfacing.
A missing Pablo Picasso painting was seen at the home of Marcos Sr.’s widow, Imelda Marcos.
Images released by the Marcos family show the painting hanging in the background while Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. hugs his mother following his victorious win on Monday.
The painting is suspected to be a missing work by the Spanish painter known for co-founding the Cubist movement. Images show the painting, “Femme Couchée VI” (Reclining Woman VI), hanging above an ornate settee in Imelda’s living room.
Though the painting could be a fake, its display adds tension to those who are already worried that Marcos Jr.’s win will mark a return to the days when the Philippines was being controlled by a greedy dictator.
Not only did Marcos Sr. abuse the civil rights of his citizens and lead a vicious police force while placing the country under martial law for half of his reign, but the Marcos regime was also severely corrupt. The Marcos family allegedly stole an estimated $10 billion from their people, with the family said to have spent the funds on artworks, foreign property, jewels and other material goods.
Imelda, 90, has been ridiculed for her shoe collection, which consists of 3,000 pairs of shoes, many of which are now on display at the Marikina Shoe Museum in Metro Manila, Philippines.
“Mrs Marcos has had a habit of buying fake paintings, as well as lending fake paintings for display,” said Ruben Carranza, a former commissioner for the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), an organization created to recoup ill-gotten wealth stolen by the Marcos family.
Carranza says it is unclear whether the Picasso painting is genuine or a fake.
“The fact that she’s now displaying it just shows not just the duplicity of Mrs. Marcos, but that she has to display the duplicity and the extravagance that she thinks she’s displaying for Filipinos to see… That says something even worse.”
“It shows this really, absolutely uncaring attitude for Filipinos. They’ve not only now been led to believe that [the Marcoses] have gold. Now, they’re leading them to believe, again, that they have so much wealth that they can just display it whenever they please,” said Carranza.
The painting was said to have been confiscated by the government in 2014, when the family’s assets - including eight paintings - were targeted for recovery. But Andres Bautista, a former PCGG and Commission on Elections (COMELEC) chairman, says he believes the painting that was seized was a fake.
Now that painting is somehow mysteriously back on Imelda’s wall, prompting Bautista to urge the government to take action.
The Marcos family has been made to face some repercussions for their stolen wealth, though not all of it has been returned. Thus far, PCGG has reportedly recovered $5 billion from the family, though some still remains missing. Marcos Jr. who has neither apologized nor acknowledged his family’s historical abuse, will have total control over the organization taxed with recouping his family’s ill-gotten wealth once he becomes president.
"How can you do your job well when the president is the person that you're supposed to run after," said Bautista. "It's the fox guarding the hen house."
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